FLORIDA MAN Makes Off-Broadway Debut

Riding the wave of the wild headlines that have captivated the nation's attention, Florida Man makes his Off-Broadway debut at the renowned Theater Row on W. 42nd Street.

"Florida Man" is a deep dive into the heart of a swampland culture where everyone is more than they appear. The play's logline is its own Florida Man headline:

A Florida Man, racked with guilt, digs up his dead father to give him the proper Viking Funeral he always wanted.

"This comedic odyssey explores some of the deeper human issues that affect us all - that exploration coming partially in the form of a jelly-donged homemade sex machine," says the playwright. "Florida Man" was written by Michael Presley Bobbitt, a commercial real estate appraiser by day and a playwright and board member at the Acrosstown Repertory Theatre - which will get its crack at the play in October after it completes its Off-Broadway run. Bobbitt is also the playwright of last year's Off-Broadway show, "Sunset Village," about the underground drug and sex culture at a swinging Florida retirement community.

"Florida Man" has enjoyed an unprecedented run of press coverage in newspapers throughout Florida, including a full-page feature in the mighty Miami Herald, and stories on NBC and Telemundo. The play was Bobbitt's winning submission in the 2019 Broadway Bound Theater Festival, which helped land it a stage Off-Broadway just blocks from current Tony-winning shows like "The Cher Show" and "The Ferryman."

"I am in the throes of a long-term, obsessive love affair with Florida," he told the Miami Herald. "Its history and folklore possess my imagination in an unhealthy way. I especially appreciate what we locals call the real Florida - off the beaten path, far from Disney World and condos on the beach. Even now, in 2019, there are parts of Florida that remain wild, untamed, a dwindling American frontier that I am keen to chronicle and archive before it fades into the creeping sprawl that sucks the life out of a place," he said.

Bobbitt also wanted to set the record straight, so to speak, on the spate of Florida Man stories that have sparked a nationwide giggle.

"I wrote 'Florida Man' because the outrageous headlines on such garish display of late do not accurately represent us," Bobbitt said. "They're fun to read, but they paint a cartoonish portrait of our great state, one that revels in the surface-weird without digging down into the truly bizarre guts of this wild place. Florida is a deep well of awesome for anyone with the grit to drill down into it."

Tickets for the festival are available via Telecharge, or by visiting www.broadwayboundfestival.com